{"id":"jw/letters/1739/24-to-dr-stebbing","corpus":"jw-letters","type":"letter","author":"john-wesley","title":"24 To Dr Stebbing","title_alt":[],"text_basis":null,"date_composed":null,"date_precision":"unknown","date_note":null,"numbering":{"bicentennial":null,"jackson_running":null,"sugden":null},"source_edition":{"editor":null,"title":null,"edition":null,"place":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"volume":null,"pages":null,"scan_url":null,"scan_page_ids":null},"transcription":{"derived_from":null,"corrected_against_scan":false,"corrector":null,"corrected_on":null},"modernization":"none","license_text":"Public Domain Mark 1.0","license_apparatus":"CC BY 4.0","wikidata":null,"prev":null,"next":null,"part_of":"jw-letters","editorial_note":null,"source_id":"jw-letter-1739-24-to-dr-stebbing","passage_ids":["jw-letter-1739-24-to-dr-stebbing-000","jw-letter-1739-24-to-dr-stebbing-001","jw-letter-1739-24-to-dr-stebbing-002","jw-letter-1739-24-to-dr-stebbing-003"],"word_count":972,"themes_auto":["assurance","catholic-spirit","christology","experience","pneumatology","reign-of-god","trinity","universal-redemption"],"open":true,"closed_reason":null,"legacy_ids":["jw-letter-1739-24-to-dr-stebbing-000","jw-letter-1739-24-to-dr-stebbing-001","jw-letter-1739-24-to-dr-stebbing-002","jw-letter-1739-24-to-dr-stebbing-003"],"passages":[{"id":"jw-letter-1739-24-to-dr-stebbing-000","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1739-24-to-dr-stebbing","source_title":"24 To Dr Stebbing","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":0,"text":"To Dr. Stebbing Date: July 31, 1739. REVEREND SIR, 1. You charge me (for I am called a Methodist, and consequently included in your charge) with 'vain and confident boastings; rash, uncharitable censures; damning all who do not feel what I feel; not allowing men to be in a salvable state unless they have experienced some sudden operation, which may be distinguished as the hand of God upon them, overpowering, as it were, the soul; with denying men the use of God's creatures, which He hath appointed to be received with thanksgiving, and encouraging abstinence, prayer, and other religious exercises, to the neglect of the duties of our station.' O sir, can you prove this charge upon me The Lord shall judge in that day! 2. I do, indeed, go out into the highways and hedges to call poor sinners to Christ; but not in a tumultuous manner, not to the disturbance of the public peace or the prejudice of families. Neither herein do I break any law which I know; much less set at naught all rule and authority. Nor can I be said to intrude into the labors of those who do not labor at all but suffer thousands of those for whom Christ died to 'perish for lack of knowledge.'","word_count":213,"source_url":null,"themes":["christology","experience","catholic-spirit"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:41:16.234189"},{"id":"jw-letter-1739-24-to-dr-stebbing-001","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1739-24-to-dr-stebbing","source_title":"24 To Dr Stebbing","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":1,"text":"3. They perish for want of knowing that we as well as the heathens 'are alienated from the life of God'; that 'every one of us,' by the corruption of our inmost nature, 'is very far gone from original righteousness' so far, that 'every person born into the world deserveth God's wrath and damnation'; that we have by nature no power either to help ourselves or even to call upon God to help us, all our tempers and works in our natural state being only evil continually. So that our coming to Christ as well as theirs must infer a great and mighty change. It must infer not only an outward change, from stealing, lying, and all corrupt communication, but a thorough change of heart, an inward renewal in the spirit of our mind. Accordingly 'the old man' implies infinitely more than outward evil conversation, even 'an evil heart of unbelief,' corrupted by pride and a thousand deceitful lusts. Of consequence the 'new man' must imply infinitely more than outward good conversation, even 'a good heart, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness' an heart full of that faith which, working by love, produces all holiness of conversation. 4. The change from the former of these states to the latter is what I call The New Birth. But you say I am not content with this plain and easy notion of it, but fill myself and others with fantastical conceits about it. Alas, sir, how can you prove this And if you cannot prove it, what amends can you make, either to God or to me or to the world, for publicly asserting a gross falsehood","word_count":279,"source_url":null,"themes":["universal-redemption","catholic-spirit","reign-of-god"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:41:16.234301"},{"id":"jw-letter-1739-24-to-dr-stebbing-002","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1739-24-to-dr-stebbing","source_title":"24 To Dr Stebbing","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":2,"text":"5. Perhaps you say you can prove this of Mr. Whitefield. What then This is nothing to me. I am not accountable for his words. The Journal you quote I never saw until it was in print. But, indeed, you wrong him as much as me. First, where you represent him as judging the notions of the Quakers in general (concerning being led by the Spirit) to be right and good; whereas he speaks only of those particular men with whom he was conversing. And again, where you say he supposes a person believing in Christ to be without any saving knowledge of Him. He supposes no such thing. To believe in Christ was the very thing he supposed wanting; as understanding that term believing to imply, not only an assent to the Articles of our Creed, but also 'a true trust and confidence of the mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ.' 6. Now, this it is certain a man may want, although he can truly say, 'I am chaste; I am sober; I am just in my dealings; I help my neighbor, and use the ordinances of God.' And, however such a man may have behaved in these respects, he is not to think well of his own state till he experiences something within himself which he has not yet experienced, but which he may be beforehand assured he shall if the promises of God are true. That something is a living faith, 'a sure trust and confidence in God that, by the merits of Christ, his sins are forgiven and he reconciled to the favor of God.' And from this will spring many other things, which till then he experienced not; as, the love of God shed abroad in his heart, the peace of God which passeth all understanding, and joy in the Holy Ghost joy, though not unfelt, yet 'unspeakable, and full of glory.'","word_count":319,"source_url":null,"themes":["christology","reign-of-god","trinity"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:41:16.234416"},{"id":"jw-letter-1739-24-to-dr-stebbing-003","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1739-24-to-dr-stebbing","source_title":"24 To Dr Stebbing","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":3,"text":"7. These are some of those inward fruits of the Spirit which must be felt wheresoever they are; and, without these, I cannot learn from Holy Writ that any man is 'born of the Spirit.' I beseech you, sir, by the mercies of God, that if as yet you know nothing of such inward feelings, if you do not ' feel in yourself these mighty workings of the Spirit of Christ,' at least you would not contradict and blaspheme. When the Holy Ghost hath fervently kindled your love towards God, you will know these to be very sensible operations. As you hear the wind, and feel it too, 'while it strikes upon your bodily organs, you will know you are under the guidance of God's Spirit the same way namely, by feeling it in your soul: by the present peace and joy and love which you feel within, as well as by its outward and more distant effects. I am, c.","word_count":161,"source_url":null,"themes":["pneumatology","experience","assurance"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:41:16.234449"}]}